LONGLISTED FOR THE NORTH SOMERSET TEACHERS' BOOK AWARD READ ALOUD CATEGORY

This book is a real page turner. It has been a long time since I picked up a book and got so lost in it that I lost track of time and hadn’t realised how much I had read.

Darkmouth is about a boy called Finn and his father, Hugo, who are Legend Hunters (Finn’s mum, it is worth noting, is a dentist). The Legends are mythical creatures that come through portals that are intent on destroying the town of Darkmouth and potentially the rest of the world.

Finn is not your fully formed hero. In fact, he really isn’t very good at monster hunting to start with. One night, he sees a person communicating with the legends; there is a traitor in Darkmouth and Finn needs to find out who it is. Oh, and if that isn’t enough, there is a prophecy about “a boy” that successive Legends have been sent to deliver to Darkmouth.

Darkmouth is fantastic fun with well-drawn characters. Finn has a great side kick in his best friend, Emmie. In Darkmouth, Hegarty has created a fully formed world complete with extracts from the histories of the Legend Hunters and impressive illustrations from James de la Rue. In addition, there are great monster fighting gadgets. My one question would be- what car do they drive? The gadgets and monsters are described in great detail, but the car isn’t! Come on, Shane.

This would be a great book to read to a year 5 or 6 class and I know that schools have done some fantastic work on the “real” mythical creatures described in the book.